ALPEN, GERMANY — As my days in Germany come to a close, what question am I asked the most? Will I be happy to be going home? The quick answer is always an emphatic “Yes,” with the added disclaimer that home is and always will be Cincinnati.

No surprise, but journalism ain't what it used to be, and we're paying the price for it. Maybe you don't care, don't think you should or wonder why it even matters. Thanks to the general apathy of the American public, you're probably right.

Tearing down the Valley Homes would seem like a good way to kick-start struggling Lincoln Heights. Walking among the mostly boarded-up government stock housing built in the 1940s to house workers at the General Electric plant during World War II, it's clear that this place isn't exactly prime Hamilton County real estate.

I don’t know a person who wasn’t affected by the windstorms that swept through here Sept. 14. If it was n’t tree branches littered all the yard or a tree lying in a road you normally take, you encountered a grocery store nearby without power, a gas tank on empty and not a station open any where.